Install Telegram (WhatsApp Alternative) in Ubuntu 14.04 / 13.10

May 3, 2014

This tutorial is going to show you how to install the cross-platform open-source messaging service Telegram in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10 and Linux Mint 16 via PPA.

Telegram uses your phone number as your user ID that allows to send messages, photos, videos and files of any type (doc, zip, mp3, etc) to people who are in your phone contacts and have Telegram. Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is cloud-based and heavily encrypted.

Telegram only provides official applications for Android and iOS. It has an open API so here comes the UNOFFICIAL web application webogram and below will show you how to install this app with Unity integration.

Disclaimer: This is an alpha version of the Telegram UNOFFICIAL web application. It may have undetected security issues, and there is definitely a load of bugs to fix, features to add and so on. So if you want 200% secure and fully functional communication, don’t use this yet! You can always find Telegram official mobile applications here: https://telegram.org

Implemented functionality list:

Sign in by phone number + SMS code, or phone call

View list of existings chats (up-posting) with infinite scrolling

View messages history for each chat/group (bottom-posting) with infinite scrolling

View brief profile info

View/edit group info

View/edit members list

View media in messages: photo, video

Download documents from messages

Emoji display in all browsers (Chrome, non-OSX ones)

Emoji keyboard

Send plain-text messages to user or group

Send files (photos or documents) via attach icon or drag’n’drop

Desktop notifications

Create new group

Edit group participants

Settings

Edit profile/userpic

Contacts

Edit, delete, forward messsages

Unsupported at the moment:

Registration

Contacts add/edit

Secret chats

Search messages

a lot more…

Install the unofficial Telegram app:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu 5+ years ago and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me on Google Plus or email to ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com